


Cycle of a Crush

by AgentStannerShipper



Category: Kingsman (Movies)
Genre: F/F, Fluff, M/M, University Professor AU, also as usual, as usual, eggsy and olivia plan shenanigans, merlin and harry are idiots
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-09
Updated: 2018-01-09
Packaged: 2019-03-02 19:52:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,615
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13325307
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AgentStannerShipper/pseuds/AgentStannerShipper
Summary: Professors Campbell and Hart have a mutual interest in each other. Naturally, they don't know it's mutual.





	Cycle of a Crush

**Author's Note:**

  * For [MHMoony](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MHMoony/gifts).



> For my darling friend Megs. Happy birthday!

It starts because of a scheduling conflict. Well, if Merlin is being completely honest with himself, it starts because he saw a man who was quite frankly too gorgeous to be real across the quad, and he’s always been a sucker for a pretty face. But the first time he speaks to him, the time it really starts, is because of a scheduling conflict. More specifically, it’s because of a scheduling conflict over the school’s computer lab.

His class is already there when one Professor Harry Hart pushes open the door and pauses. Merlin straightens up, pushing his glasses back up his nose and tilting his head. His mouth goes a bit dry, but he doesn’t stammer when he asks, “Can I help you?”

Professor Hart gestures briefly at the students behind him, “I think there’s been some sort of mistake. My class is booked for this lab.”

“No,” Merlin says slowly, “I’m fairly certain my class was scheduled in.” He brings up the calendar, and sighs in frustration, “Or, the administration double-booked us and didn’t mention it.”

All too suddenly, Professor Hart is peering over Merlin’s shoulder at his computer, and Merlin goes very still. “Shit,” Hart murmurs. “I don’t suppose there are enough computers to share?”

“What are your students here for?”

“I’m having them select a case to review. I teach pre-law.”

“I know,” Merlin says, and then winces internally because he’s fairly certain he’s going to come off as a stalker if he doesn’t explain himself. “My TA is friends with one of your students. She says he talks about you a lot.” He hesitates and then says, “We were getting a bit of hands-on practice. I teach computer science.”

Hart smiles. “I know. So. Is sharing on the table?”

“I don’t think so,” Merlin says regretfully. “I suppose we could partner people up? Cut the number of computers in half.”

“An excellent idea,” Hart agrees.

They sort out the students into pairs, and let them go back to work. Casually, Hart asks, “About your TA…what my student has been saying?”

“All good things,” Merlin assures him, because it’s true. Olivia relays it all to him with an air of amusement because she knows about Merlin’s crush, but Eggsy really does think the world of Hart. “It’s Eggsy Unwin, actually. That boy thinks you hung the moon.”

Hart laughs, “He’s very eager. I don’t get many so bright and so selflessly motivated. You would not believe how many people enter law just for the salary.”

Merlin thinks about his own students and says, “I think I might. What about you? Why pre-law?”

“Well, I was a lawyer for a bit, but it didn’t suit me. I had a nasty tendency to form my own opinion, laws be damned. I prefer teaching, and I wasn’t qualified to teach anything else without going back to school for a long while, and I’m a rather impatient man.” Hart gives him an interested look, “You?”

“I love computers,” Merlin says. “And I love teaching, passing on knowledge to young minds. Seemed an obvious choice.”

After, when they clear out of the lab, Hart shakes his hand and says, “It was a pleasure meeting you properly, Professor Campbell.”

“The pleasure was all mine, Professor Hart.”

Hart’s lips quirk into a smile, “Please, call me Harry.”

Merlin keeps his expression neutral, but inside he nearly melts. “Then you can call me Merlin,” he says, calmly as he can manage.

Harry arches his eyebrows. “Merlin? Odd name.”

“Nickname,” he clarifies. “Computer wizard. Got it when I was in school. It stuck.”

“Suits you,” Harry says. “I’ll see you around, Merlin.”

He disappears down the hallway before Merlin can collect himself enough to respond.

***

It starts because Harry is an idiot. “What was I thinking?” he asks, pacing across the floor.

Percival doesn’t even look up from his papers. “You weren’t,” he says idly, turning a page and making another mark in red pen. “You’ve been staring at him from afar like a sad puppy for long enough. Your brain couldn’t handle being in close proximity, and it short circuited.”

“I’ll see you around?” Harry moans. “Why don’t I just throw myself at his feet and beg for a date?”

“Yes, please do that,” James calls from the kitchen. “Spare us from listening to your emotional crisis any longer.”

“’I’ll see you around’ is a perfectly normal thing to say to another human being, Harry,” Percival tells him. He narrows his eyes at the paper and mutters, “If they write one more variation of ‘Dickens was a highly influential author,’ I’m going to stab their eyes out with this pen.”

James bustles in from the kitchen, flour-dusted, with his apron tied neatly around his waist. “Don’t murder your students, darling,” he tells Percival, setting a scone down next to his husband’s stack of papers. He offers one to Harry, who declines politely. James has been experimenting with flavours again, and Harry’s stomach is not as strong as Percival’s.

“What do I do?” he asks instead.

“You could take James’s advice and ask him out,” Percival says pointedly.

“Or,” Harry counters, “I could change my name and move to another country. How does William sound? I’d make a good Bill, don’t you think?”

Percival rolls his eyes. James raises his eyebrows and says, “I think that’s a tad melodramatic. And that’s coming from me.”

“Point taken.”

***

It continues because Merlin is hopeless with people. Honestly, he’s not even sure why Olivia likes to be around him. He doesn’t talk for days on end sometimes, or else he spends hours on end talking about some new thing he’s researching. His struggle to make friends is not new to him, and that one of his only current friends is his TA is both sad and in the same vein as the rest of his life.

“You could just ask him out,” Olivia points out. She’s sitting on his desk, swinging her legs idly as she hunches over her laptop. Merlin gets a brief glimpse of the screen as he circles the desk; as he suspected, Olivia is chatting with her girlfriend, Roxy, who’s currently studying abroad in the states.

“I can’t ‘just ask him out,’” Merlin says. “I don’t even know if he’s gay.”

“He’s gay,” Olivia says with complete conviction. “He told Eggsy. He’s not exactly in the closet.”

That makes Merlin pause, because the biggest thing holding him back had been his fear of being rejected by a straight man. It’s happened a time or two, and it’s usually not pleasant. Not that rejection is ever pleasant, but he could do without people taking a swing at him for asking.

Olivia catches the look on his face and lights up, “Oh, you’re thinking about doing it, aren’t you?”

Merlin shakes his head. “It’s unprofessional,” he says. “Dating another member of staff?” It’s Big Reason #2 that he hasn’t asked Harry out yet. There’s a whole list, and that Merlin is incredibly socially awkward and Harry is the sort of man he could fall for and never get over are numbers four and seven respectively.

Olivia groans, “You’re thinking about your stupid list again, aren’t you?”

“It’s not stupid,” Merlin says defensively. “A relationship is like a computer program. It can only function within a certain set of parameters. And Harry and I…we’d fall outside that set of parameters.”

“Has anyone ever told you you’re a massive nerd?” Olivia teases.

“You. Just about every day.”

“Forget about your list,” Olivia tells him pointedly. “Ask him out. What’s the worst that could happen? He says no?”

Actually, if given a few seconds to think about it, Merlin would say the worst that could happen would be Harry saying yes, going out together a few times, falling completely in love with him, and having Harry break up with him because he doesn’t feel the same way. “I’ll think about it,” he says.

***

It continues because life is complicated. Harry’s a busy man. He has classes to teach, papers to grade, a mother to pacify with lies of “yes, I’m seeing someone, there’s no need to fix me up with your friend’s son,” and a dog to take care of. There isn’t much time in his life for anything else.

“That’s a load of shit,” Eggsy tells him cheerfully. He likes to hang around Harry’s office when he can. His home life isn’t exactly ideal, so Harry isn’t going to discourage him from getting away from it wherever possible.

“It’s not shit,” Harry shoots back. “It’s the truth. I don’t have the time to take on a romantic partner right now.”

“You mean, you’re too chicken to ask him because he might say no.”

Harry sighs, “He might not even be gay, Eggsy.”

“Oh, he’s gay. Olivia told me so.”

“Olivia?”

“His TA,” Eggsy explains. “She’s the girl Roxy’s been dating, but don’t tell Professor Hadley. She doesn’t want him to frighten her off.”

“Percival isn’t frightening,” Harry says. Eggsy gives him a look, and Harry admits, “Alright, perhaps he can be a bit intimidating at times.”

“He scares the shit out of me,” Eggsy says. “Kinda like Professor Campbell scares the shit out of you.”

“I’m not frightened of Merlin.”

“You’re scared he might say no,” Eggsy points out. “You won’t even give asking him out a shot.”

“I told you, I don’t have-“

“You _do_ have time, Harry,” Eggsy insists. “Stop making excuses and just do it, already.”

Harry would like to. He would really, _really_ like to. But even if Merlin does say yes, even if they do hit it off, eventually he’s just going to leave. Harry doesn’t have the best track record with dating, and he’d rather not add ‘unfairly attractive co-worker who he might be a tiny bit in love with’ to the list of people he can never speak to again. He thinks, if he’s very lucky, he and Merlin can be friends.

“I’m not going to ask him out,” he tells Eggsy.

His student groans in frustration, but he drops the argument.

***

It ends because Olivia can’t leave well enough alone.

“Alright, I’m here,” he says into his phone. The coffee shop is mostly deserted; the barista behind the counter looks bored, and only a few half-asleep students with glowing laptops populate the booths. Olivia, who’d told him she had something urgent to discuss with him, is not here. “Where are you?”

“Not there,” she says, as if that weren’t obvious.

“So why am I here? What did you need to talk to me about?”

“Roxy, Eggsy, and I are staging an intervention,” Olivia explains.

That does not bode well. “What sort of intervention?” he asks cautiously.

“You’ll see,” Olivia chirps, and Merlin scowls, because he has a bad feeling about where this is going.

“Is this about Harry? Because-“

“Is what about me?”

Merlin whirls on the spot, phone still pressed to his ear, and takes in the sight of Harry, bundled up in a lovely black coat and blue scarf, one hand tucked in his pocket and the other clutching his phone. “I will call you back,” he tells Olivia, hoping the threat hiding in those words is obvious to her and not to Harry. He hangs up to the sound of her laughing.

***

It ends because Eggsy never gives up on anything. It’s an unfortunately endearing trait, given the way he’s turning it on Harry now.

It’s freezing outside, and he shivers as he approaches the coffee shop, “I’m almost there. Are you going to tell me what was so important that we couldn’t discuss it over the-“ He stops, not just mid-sentence, but dead in his tracks, because through the window he can see Merlin, talking into his mobile and looking, as usual, unfairly attractive in a winter coat and honest-to-god leather gloves.

“Harry?” Eggsy asks, and his voice is absolutely gleeful.

“You set this up, didn’t you?” Harry accuses.

“Well, not just me. Olivia and Rox helped. He likes you, you know. Olivia says so.”

Harry hesitates. “We don’t really know each other,” he says.

“But he wants to know you,” Eggsy points out. “And you want to know him. Come on, Harry, please?”

Harry gives himself another moment to think, staring at Merlin through the glass. “I’ll talk to you later, Eggsy,” he finally says, and hangs up. Then he strides through the café’s doors.

“Is this about Harry?” Merlin says into his phone, and Harry’s heart skips a beat. “Because-“

“Is what about me?” Harry interjects. Gentlemen might not interrupt, according to his mother, but he thinks she’d give him a pass for this one because gentlemen also don’t eavesdrop, and if he doesn’t interrupt the conversation now, that’s exactly what he’d be doing.

Merlin spins on his heel, looking abruptly alarmed. “I will call you back,” he says sharply into the phone, and hangs up. He pulls his gloves off and shoves them into his pocket with his mobile.

Harry gives him a small smile, “It seems we’re being set up.”

“Set up?” Merlin even cuter when he’s flustered. It matches how Harry feels on the inside.

He gestures with his phone, “I was just speaking to Eggsy. Apparently, he and your TA have been conspiring.”

“Olivia might have said something to that effect.” Merlin’s voice is guarded.

Since he’s here, Harry decides he might as well lay all his cards on the table, “Eggsy says that Olivia says you like me. As in, you might be interested in dating me.”

Merlin swallows hard, looking stricken. When he doesn’t say anything, Harry continues, “Quite frankly, it’s a bit of a relief, finding that out.”

“It is?”

Harry nods, “I’ve been interested in dating you.”

“You have?”

“Why wouldn’t I be?”

Merlin gives half a shrug, “I’m not the easiest person to talk to.”

“Neither am I,” Harry says honestly. “I’m loud, opinionated, and I’m told I talk far too much.”

Merlin smiles a bit. “That doesn’t sound so bad. People tell me I don’t talk enough. They feel like they’re having a conversation with a wall. But, if you don’t mind that…”

“Give me your phone,” Harry says. Merlin frowns, but hesitantly hands it over. As he types, Harry explains, “I’m putting my number in. I’d very much like it if you called me some time. We could get dinner.” He looks up, and Merlin’s smiling properly now.

“I’d like that,” he says.

There’s a little whoop from somewhere to the right, and Merlin and Harry both turn to see Eggsy slouching down in his seat. The sound hadn’t actually come from the boy in question, but from his phone, sitting out on the table.

Merlin crosses his arms, “Olivia?”

“What?” she says, “I’m busy tonight. Eggsy’s just keeping me updated. We had to make sure you two would actually do it.”

“And if we hadn’t?” Harry asks, narrowing his eyes at Eggsy, who squirms in his seat. “If I hadn’t asked Merlin out?”

“We had a backup plan in place,” Eggsy mumbles.

“I don’t want to know,” Merlin says. He looks at Harry, “How do you feel about maybe getting that dinner now?”

“My evening is wide open.” Harry offers Merlin his arm, and the other man takes it. He points a finger at Eggsy, “No more shenanigans, understood?”

“Cross my heart,” Eggsy grins.

Harry leads Merlin out of the café and into the cold. “Their hearts are in the right place,” Merlin admits.

Harry has to admit he’s right. And it’s not exactly a hardship, what with the way Merlin tucks himself against Harry’s side for warmth. He could definitely get used to this.


End file.
